


under your wing

by partiallight



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Danmaca spoilers, Gen, La danse macabre, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28901478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partiallight/pseuds/partiallight
Summary: Vida is the guardian of the dead. He must not falter.One day, he meets an angel of death.
Relationships: Kuon & Vida
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	under your wing

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers for danmaca all the way to the end! enjoy

In a stagnant world, becoming stagnant means becoming one with it.

This world is dead, so stopping means dying along with it.

Vida cannot die. He cannot allow himself to. He is the guardian of unappeased souls. The only one who can shoulder the burden of the dead.

He can do it.

Because he’s strong.

...It begins with a touch on the shoulder. The wind brushes against him harshly, whispering of the dying words uttered by Placer’s dead sibling, whispering of the duty Vida has to fulfill.

He’s still innocent, then. 

* * *

The first time Vida kills with his own hands, it’s self-defense.

‘Someone went insane over the starvation again, run away,’, they’d told him.

But Vida couldn’t run. He had to look for food, after all. Anything edible. Placer is always hungry, after all.

“Hey, you look tasty enough,” a voice had said behind him.

Vida does not remember the fight. He only remembers the blood on his hands, on his face, on his clothes. How it soaked his clothes red.

How he thought, ‘That’s bothersome. Maybe I should wear red from now on.’

* * *

It is at age thirteen that Vida encounters an angel.

Pale, the guy seems unaccustomed to the sun. An easy target.

Vida has yet to lose his fear of meaningless killings, so he tries to rob him.

“Do you want something, perhaps?” The guy smiles, his red hair looks beautiful in the morning sun.

Vida doesn’t believe for a second that answering will merit him anything. He tries anyway. “Money.”

“For what? I haven’t got any on me, unfortunately…”

“Don’t bullshit me. You know why I need money. Who doesn’t need money to feed themselves?”

“Oh, you want food?”

“Yeah. And you’ll give it to me!” Vida lunges at him, tired of waiting, but the guy just sidesteps with that same smile, leaving Vida to fall onto the ground.

“My name is Kuon. And you are?” He extends a hand to Vida.

Vida doesn’t take it. The spirits tell him not to.

Kuon pouts. “Shh. I’m trying to talk to him! Eh? His name is Vida? What a good name!”

“You can hear them?” Vida’s eyes widen.

“Always will.” Kuon laughs sheepishly and pulls Vida up by the hand anyway. “I caused many people pain, so this is my cross to bear. It shouldn’t be yours.”

“You don’t seem like the type. And…” Vida is stopped by a piece of bread in his mouth.

“It might be a bit stale by now, I’ve been travelling for a week. But it should still be edible!”

It tastes better than anything Vida has had in the entire past year.

* * *

“You full?” Kuon seems happy in Vida’s presence, and Vida really cannot tell why.

“...I am.” Vida’s stomach growls.

“Have another apple.” Kuon ruffles his hair.

Vida wonders if Kuon is ignoring the blood he’s covered in. The smell of death comes off of him, and he barely stomach it himself. Yet Kuon… he has that aura, too. Like death wants him, but can’t have him.

Vida gets up. 

Kuon blinks. “Where are you going?”

“Looking for food for my friends.”

“Ah, you can have this.” Kuon hands him a bag. “There’s enough for about three days.”

“What about you?”

Vida shouldn’t ask.

“I don’t really die, it’s fine.” Kuon laughs. “Mind if I keep you company?”

Vida wants to say no, but Kuon is already walking by his side.

* * *

“You really don’t get hungry, do you.” Vida sighs as they set up camp for the night.

He’d traveled very far from District 12 before running into Kuon.

“I once kind of forgot to eat for a week.” Kuon shrugs. “My friend got mad though.”

“I’d get mad, too.”

“You’re a good kid.”

“Don’t act like a grandpa.”

Kuon laughs solemnly. “I’m pretty old, you know.” Then. “I’ll keep watch. You can sleep.”

Vida doesn’t feel like he should, but his legs are short and he walked a lot, so sleep takes him fast anyway.

* * *

“Why won’t you die?!” A loud scream wakes Vida up.

Burglars. Not a surprise in any way, but…

Kuon is fighting them, barehanded.

“Will you stop now?” He sighs. “My company might wake up, and this does hurt.”

His left arm is missing.

Vida doesn’t move, instead he focuses on not throwing up.

Focuses harder as he watches Kuon’s arm regrow.

“You monster!” The burglar picks up his axe.

“Yes, I am a monster. So please go away.” Kuon looks pained.

“In that case…!” The burglar lunges for Vida.

“Vida!” Kuon blocks the hit with his body, and his blood splashes over Vida.

The burglar drops the axe, and Kuon removes it from his chest. “I’ll say it one more time. Please go away. I haven’t killed in many centuries, and I’d rather have it stay that way.”

Seeing Kuon with the axe in hand, the burglar makes a run for it.

“Now to clean this up… oh, you’re awake, Vida?” Kuon sighs. “Sorry you had to see that.”

* * *

Vida had truly met an angel of death.

Whenever the whispers come to Vida, Kuon shushes them away, and it’s as if they fear him.

“You know, Vida,” Kuon says, cleaning his blood off Vida’s face. “You’re a good kid. Wanna come with me? I’ll give you a good life, too. Your friends can come along, too. We have food, and water… I guess we don’t have sunlight. But that shouldn’t be too bad.”

Vida considers it. He’d love to. A part of him would really, really love to, but…

“You hear what they’re saying, right?”

Kuon nods. “Is that why you can’t come?”

“Yeah.”

Kuon looks genuinely sad. “I’m sorry I can’t do more for you.”

He glances at the burglar’s axe. “Wanna take that, then? It seems well-made. Maybe you’ll need it.”

“But it’s your loot.”

“I never fight, so I won’t need it. And while I wish you wouldn’t need it either, I am happy as long as you live to see another day. You, who tries so much harder to live than me…”

Vida nods. “Then. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. You’re my friend, after all.”

“Friend?”

“Yeah!” Kuon smiles. “I hope we can meet again.”

“...Me, too.”

* * *

They don’t meet again.

Vida stares at the ceiling as his vision darkens. Libel’s voice is getting quieter, and he is taken back to that time he met an angel of death.

_ Is that Kabane Kuon’s friend then? _

It’s not like it matters. Maybe he should have gone with him.

Maybe he should have asked Kuon to stay with him.

_ If there is an afterlife, I hope he can find me there one day. _


End file.
